quid pro quo
by ryder77
Summary: Lelouch knows one of her secrets. Kallen wants to even out the playing field but gets more than what she bargained for. -Oneshot- Set some time after Stage 9.


Disclaimer: As always, should you or any of your I.M. force is ca- *ahem*. Sunrise owns Code Geass. Clamp designed the characters. I can only love them for making the series possible.

* * *

"I won't tell anyone, so don't worry."

That was what he told me as he left the clubhouse shower room. Crafty smart-ass that I knew Lelouch Lamperouge to be, I was left to wonder what exactly he wouldn't tell anyone:

My pouch knife?

That I'm not really sick?

That some stranger managed to call me on the phone in the shower room? (I found out last week that you can dial directly to the shower room. Go figure.)

That he saw me n--... never mind.

That was about two months ago, and, so far, Lelouch was true to his word. Nobody seemed curious about what happened between my entering the shower room and meeting up with everybody after I got dressed. Everyone was still giving me a wide berth when I pull my weakling-girl act, too.

So far, so good.

Although...

Lelouch seemed intent on avoiding me since. I should be glad (good riddance, you conceited, annoying, self-absorbed bastard!), but he had more than one blackmail card against me, and I thought it strange that he wasn't using any of them.

Okay. Worried, maybe.

No, scratch that. It's driving me insane!

Lots of times I've thought of catching him alone, grabbing him by his collar and pinning him against the wall just to ask him what the heck his game was. Why haven't I done so already? One: I'm supposed to be a refined lady of frail health (pardon me while I fake-cough). Two: I got the idea that _maybe_ that's what he wanted me to do. Paranoid? Not really. If you've been on the receiving end of all those times he jumped at the chance of making fun of me... ARGH!

Great. As if Milly being aware of my being half-Japanese wasn't enough. Well, _her_ I could trust -- maybe in the sense that she was actually making me her slave through Student Council work. They were all tasks easily done by the frail girl I was supposed to be, too, so I supposed she really was serious about keeping my secret. Lelouch, on the other hand...

Stop it, Kouzuki! Secret or no secret, you weren't supposed to think of annoying jerks, especially when Milly wanted you to take these flyers to the Council room.

Wait, I meant 'Stadtfeld'!

Really, I should be out there fighting for Japan, not living a double-life as a Britannian student. Leave it to people like Lelouch to 'bow to Britannia' because it was easier to live that way.

Speak of the devil! There he was, napping on more of those budget proposals. Hmm, looks like he was even in dreamland. I would seriously be enjoying it when Milly would come and--

Was that a sob, just now?

"...Mother."

Whoa, this is rich! Who would have thought that Mr. Smirk-a-lot was actually a mamma's boy? No hard feelings, Lelouch. A secret for a secret. Fair's fa--

Omigod, he's going to hurt himself if he breaks that pen!

"...Nunnally...no!"

What the heck was I just listening to?!

"...NO!"

Alright, I'm officially creeped-out. Milly can have her fun some other time, I'm waking him up now!

-o.O.o-

Great. Now _I'm_ the one avoiding him.

It had been two days and I'm still reeling from the shock. I, Kallen Kozuki, the Ace of the Black Knights, am still reeling from the shock of getting hugged by one Lelouch Lamperouge.

Well, it really wasn't the hug that unnerved me, but how un-Lelouch he was when it happened.

I had reached for his shoulder to shake him awake, and my hand had barely settled when it was swatted away. Like anybody waking from a nightmare, Lelouch looked like he was getting ready to run. I was about to tell him where he was, tell him he was somewhere safe, but when he looked at my face and his expression changed to looking really, REALLY happy, I was stunned speechless. Now, imagine how my mind blanked when he suddenly stood up, pulled me flush against his body, and said like he was about to cry,

"I'm so glad you're all right."

To be perfectly honest, I was terrified of what could have happened if Milly hadn't arrived when she did and snapped us both out of it. Yes, I ran from the room as soon as I felt his arms loosen a bit; I was _that_ terrified.

Yes, I know I could use the incident as even more leverage against him, but...

I caught him at his most unguarded moment, and I believed that was _way_ worse than deliberately going out of your way just to see somebody naked.

Which he didn't do.

Thank goodness for Milly and those... powers she had! She didn't know everything, but she had the sense to figure out that what happened wasn't tease-worthy. She caught me during lunch and asked for my side of the story. I already knew I could trust her, so I told her everything from when I caught Lelouch sleeping until she walked in on us.

"I see," was her first response, and I could tell she wasn't planning on having fun out of the info. "You were right to avoid him for now. He doesn't like talking about it."

"Our families go way back," she quickly added before I could ask the question she just answered. "We took him and Nunnally in after their mother was killed."

_"Killed"?_

"Don't tell him you heard it from me, though," she sighed. "And I can't tell you any more. I just thought I'd give you something to think about in case he cornered you."

_"C-cornered"?!_

"I wouldn't worry too much," she assured me. "He respects you, that much I can tell. He'll hear you out."

"Do you," I stuttered, recalling the shock of the moment. "Do you have an idea why he....?"

"'Fraid not," she shrugged. "I guess you'll have to ask him yourself." With that, she gave my shoulders a light squeeze and left me alone.

By some miracle (or Milly Magic), Lelouch and I were both alone in the Student Council room the next day -- him typing away at the Council's laptop and me sorting some (more) flyers. For a long time, we both just kept quiet. I was nervous at first, but the sounds of the keyboard tapping and paper shuffling helped me relax enough to gather the courage to speak.

"You," I stopped when his typing suddenly stopped, but this was no time to chicken out. "You loved your mother, didn't you?"

He kept still, so I went on. "I didn't think much of mine. I even told her to disappear a few times. But when I nearly lost her recently, I was terrified."

"You see, I already lost my brother," I think his shoulders shifted a bit here, but I wasn't looking directly at him so I'm not so sure. "Even now, there are days where I wake up grabbing my bed's headboard because he used to pull me out of bed by my ankles to wake me up."

"I guess what I'm trying to say is," I said before I took a deep breath. If what Milly told me amounted to anything, this was all he needed to hear:

"I won't tell anyone, so don't worry."

After saying it I only stayed put, and the room was quiet for a while. I sighed when he resumed his typing, then I went back to work. Maybe I shouldn't have used his exact words. I feel terrible now. He probably thought I was a--

"She...," I nearly jumped out of my seat when he spoke. I could tell that he was having a hard time saying whatever he he had to say, but he went on.

"Her eyes were blue."

"Oh," was all that I could say even after a few moments. I have given up on asking for the answer to, uh, -that- question. I guess this meant we were calling it even. "I see."

A secret for a secret.

"Thanks," because I felt it needed to be said, "for not telling anyone."

A promise for a promise.

"Ah."

-o.O.o-

"Really, Marianne," said a green-haired witch as she tiptoed her way from outside the Student Council room back to Lelouch's bedroom.

"What _ever_ did you teach that boy of yours?" A silence as she seemed to listen to someone's answer, then a frown.

"Just look at him: waiting for the girl to make the first move." Another silence, followed by a pout this time.

"Of course, I wasn't. Who do you think I am?"

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**Author's notes:** Yeah, I've been re-watching season one. I'm that hopeless XD

Because season one KxL is that much different from R2 KxL, I thought I'd give it a shot, and this is the result. I wanted to put a bit of Lelouch POV in there, but I couldn't decide where to put it. :-/

As always, feedback is appreciated! =)


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